Silicon is well known in the art for providing an effective coating for use with a variety of applications. For example, silicon is often used to coat metals, thereby reducing corrosion of the metal. One of the disadvantages associated with the use of silicon as a coating has been the difficulty of providing silicon in an aqueous medium. This is in part due to silicon being insoluble in water. Many attempts have been made to combine silicon or other metals in an aqueous solution. For example, U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,328 to Rice relates to one such combination. The aqueous electrodeposition baths produced in accordance with U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,328 addresses some of the problems associated with prior art techniques of making silicon solutions. The patent describes the formation of an aqueous silicon solution from the combination of silicon, sodium hydroxide and water in the molar ratio of 6:1:10, respectively. While the resulting solutions may be useful, the manufacturing process disclosed is complex and dangerous and results in solutions that are unstable and inferior in quality and character to the solutions of the instant invention. As such, these solutions are not suited to the methods of the present invention.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,570,713, also to Rice, relates to aqueous silicon compounds for use with oil recovery methods. As with U.S. Pat. No. 4,571,328, this patent teaches the formation of a metal hydride from reacting a non-alkaline metal with an alkaline metal hydroxide in water. The metal hydride is water-soluble and may be diluted to a solution with specific gravity of 1.3. As in the '713 patent, the manufacturing process disclosed is complex and dangerous and results in solutions that are unstable
Thus, it would therefore be desirable to provide a safe and effective method of manufacturing stable, aqueous solutions of silicon. The present invention solves the above problem by providing a safer, more effective method of reacting sodium hydroxide, water, and silicon metal to produce an aqueous solution of silicon which is more stable and has more useful properties than any known aqueous solution of silicon. The solutions of the instant invention have a myriad of uses as a result of this improved stability and its unique properties.
Washing hydrocarbons from metal parts has long been a tedious and inefficient means of cleaning tools, parts, and/or metal components. Hundreds of thousands of dollars are spent every month on cleaning solutions for use in parts washing machines around the country, and many of these solutions clean parts only marginally at best and leave unacceptable “dirty” parts at the end of the so-called cleaning cycle. The combination of these cleaning solutions and their by-products create serious waste water and effluent problems. Most cleaning products, e.g., petroleum based solvents, high pH industrial cleaners, etc., are (i) difficult to handle, (ii) highly volatile, and (iii) inherently toxic to our environment. Moreover, petroleum products that are recovered from parts washing machines are contaminated and are not re-usable or re-cyclable. And finally, many companies are forced to treat environmental effluent from the parts washing process to meet environmental standards, resulting in increased cost of business.
It is thus apparent that there still remains a long-felt, but unfulfilled need to provide an environmentally safe, simple wash capable of cleaning tools, parts, and/or metal components. The present invention solves the above stated problems through the use of a revolutionary formulation created by reacting sodium hydroxide, water, and silicon metal which has unique properties and many uses beyond that of a cleaning solution.
It becomes more apparent everyday that the production of oil in the United States and throughout the world is very important. Since oil is obviously a limited resource, it is imperative that we develop processes that will more efficiently extract oil from the earth. In the past, it was relatively easy to find new oil reserves when a field was depleted or became unprofitable. In many fields only 15-25% of the oil in place was actually recovered before reservoir pressure or drive was depleted or other factors made it uneconomical to continue to produce the field. As long as new reserves were readily available, old fields were abandoned. However, since most of the existing on-shore oil in the United States has already been discovered, it is obvious that such known reserves must be efficiently and economically produced.
It has been estimated that at least 50% of the known oil reserves of the United States cannot be recovered using conventional pumping methods. A substantial amount of this oil is of an abnormally low gravity, and/or high viscosity, often coupled with the fact that there is little or no pressure in the oil-bearing formation. In the absence of formation pressure, even oil of average viscosity and gravity is difficult to produce without adding external energy to the formation to move the oil into a producing borehole. Accordingly, a great deal of attention has recently been given to various methods of secondary recovery. Water flooding has been utilized with mixed results to attempt to increase the natural reservoir pressure hydraulically. Thermal flooding techniques, such as fire flooding, steam injection and hot water flooding have been utilized to alter the viscosity of the oil and hence, enhance its flow characteristics.
In those cases where the natural energy of the reservoir is insufficient to overcome the resistive forces such as the forces of viscous resistance and the forces of capillary action, external energy must be applied. To illustrate such cases, this phenomenon is typically encountered in shallow formations containing high viscosity oil that has little or no reservoir energy or formation pressure available, and in those oil-producing formations in which the reservoir energy has been depleted or dissipated. In this discussion, we have been referring to “mechanical” forces acting within the producing formation. In a formation in which the natural energy of the reservoir has been depleted, the mechanical forces in the formation have reached near equilibrium and no pressure differential is available to drive the oil from the formation into the well bore. In all of the cases where reservoir energy was depleted by conventional primary production, or non-existent in the first instance, the chemical balance of the producing formation remains undisturbed and in virtual equilibrium.
Artificial forces introduced into the reservoir such as water or gas through various “pressuring” or “flood” techniques of secondary recovery can effect a mechanical change in the formation by way of pressure. Steam pressure is likewise effective, with some side benefits from heat. Combustion of some of the oil in the formation through “fire-flooding” and heating a well bore serve to reduce the viscosity of the oil in place and enhance flow characteristics but lack a drive to force the oil through the formation and into a producing well bore. However, these are primarily mechanical forces applied and operating only on an exposed face or surface of the formation, and if some chemical or molecular change is accomplished in the fluids in the formation, it is limited to a localized phenomenon. The instant invention will enhance the flow characteristics of the oil in the formation.
Water flooding has a number of economic advantages as an oil recovery process. Although over half of the original oil in place can remain after water flooding, there are many factors which favor its use. Water of sufficient volume and quality for flooding is generally available. Because of its hydrostatic head, it is readily injected at sufficient rates in most reservoirs and spread well throughout the formation.
The investments usually required for initiating a water flood project include water supply wells, water treating facilities, pump stations, flow lines from the central plant to the injection wells, and the injection wells themselves. Depending upon the deliverability of the water supply wells and treating chemical costs, the cost can range from a few mills to as much as five cents or more per barrel of injected water.
Production costs have a similarly wide range. These can depend upon the type of lift equipment needed and whether any unusual treating is required to separate the produced oil and water. Where particularly troublesome oil-water emulsions exist, treatment and chemical costs can escalate rapidly.
In summary, however, through the use of available technology and equipment, water flooding is for a large number of reservoirs an economically attractive oil recovery method. Its limitation is that significant quantities of the oil initially in place are left unrecovered after water flooding.
Thus, there remains a long-felt and unfulfilled need for a method of improved oil recovery. The present invention greatly improves the process known as water flooding by substituting the silicon solutions of the present invention for water. The unique properties of the silicon solutions substantially increase the percentage of oil that can be collected in secondary recovery of oil fields and reservoirs.